Check it out here: The Erika Immersive Experiment Experience featuring Stephen Nomura

BEFORE

AFTER

Drop this snippet in functions.php and you’re done!

/**
 * Remove 'Favorite Actions' from Admin Header
 */
function remove_admin_fav_actions(){
	return array();
	}
add_filter('favorite_actions','remove_admin_fav_actions');

The site uses PHPurchase to handle the Paypal API, my own modified version of Custom Post Types UI and Verve Meta Boxes for back-end management. They’re all three sort of twisted together into a nice organized and streamlined mess of PHP.

I was having problems with PHPurchase for a long time. It would successfully redirect me to Paypal but fail on the Paypal to WordPress redirect. IPN was working fine. Receipts were NOT working. But payments were still going through… all very weird.

The problem was so damn simple I would have screamed had it not been 4:30 in the morning and had my grandma not been sleeping upstairs. I had the plugin Permalink Redirect enabled, which strips queries (?) and fragments (#) out of the URL.

Wow, Stephen.

Just wow.

Phase 2 is hooking it into the Flickr API.

Phase 3 is updated branding (new theme and other css work).

Thoughts? Critiques? Please? Anyone? Bueller? Bueller?

This code is specific to the Thematic WordPress Theme. However, it is easily modified to work with any setup.

Steps

1. Add code to functions.php
2. Edit style.css

The Code

function layout_engine_body_class($c) {
// AMENDS thematic_body_class with layout engine classes
 
	global $wp_query, $current_user;
	$browser = $_SERVER[ 'HTTP_USER_AGENT' ];
 
	if ( preg_match( "/Chrome/", $browser ) ) {
		$c[] = 'engine-webkit';
	} elseif ( preg_match( "/Safari/", $browser ) ) {
		$c[] = 'engine-webkit';
	} elseif ( preg_match( "/Opera/", $browser ) ) {
		$c[] = 'engine-presto';
	} elseif ( preg_match( "/MSIE/", $browser ) ) {
		$c[] = 'engine-trident';
	} elseif ( preg_match( "/Gecko/", $browser ) ) {
		$c[] = 'engine-gecko';
	}
 
	return $c;
}
add_action('thematic_body_class','layout_engine_body_class');

Example CSS

.engine-gecko .cboxElement {
	cursor: -moz-zoom-in;
	}
.engine-webkit .cboxElement {
	cursor: -webkit-zoom-in;
	}

Best of all, it’s fill-in-the-blank easy.

The Rhetorical Situation

Roberts and Kostelnick’s book, Designing Visual Language, defines the rhetorical situation as follows.

Audience

those who are going to use your document; who they are, what they know about the subject, their previous experience with documents like the one you’re designing, even their cultural background. – Roberts p.5

Purpose

what you want your document to accomplish: persuade your readers to think or act a certain way, enable them to perform a task, help them understand something, change their attitude, and so on. – Roberts p.5

Context

the circumstances in which readers will use your document: at their office desk, in a manufacturing plant while they’re completing a task, while they’re sitting around a conference table, and so on. – Roberts p.5

Their definition is good, but not complete. I propose a fourth element, the Author.

Author

The perceived author of your document. Not the actual author (that’s you), but rather how the audience imagines the author. A rich woman? A humble desk clerk? An educated politician? An uneducated politician? A speech writer doing a bad job at making it look like the speaker actually wrote it themselves?

Example: Sue’s Apple Orchard

Sue is an apple orchard owner and she wants you to design and write a flyer. Sales have been down since a similar orchard was caught using banned pesticides. Sue’s orchard uses a natural and non-toxic method of pest control.

The rhetorical situation brainstorm and associated design decisions might look like this:

Audience

30 to 50 year old suburban parents.

• Sell it as a good family experience.
• Stress how healthy apples are for growing children.
• Makes for good apple pie!

Children.

• Use pictures of a character (like Barney)

Organizations that plan field trips: day cares, schools, etc.

• Mention group discounts.
• Sell it as an educational experience or teaching tool.

Local markets

• Mention wholesale pricing.

Purpose

To disassociate with the bad orchard.

• Bold statements like “Pesticide Free! We never use chemicals!”

To sell the apple picking experience.

• Image of a child smiling while chomping down on a freshly picked apple?

To sell apples.

• You know the drill—pick your sales/marketing poison. Discounts, comparisons to competitors, etc.

Context

Tacked to bulletin boards, walls, and light posts. At bus stops. Exposed to the elements. Viewed from a distance.

• Keep text big, bold, and sans-serif to maximize readability at a distance and to help maintain readability if it becomes torn or soggy or whatever.

As an insert in the local newspaper.

• Use colored paper so it stands out from the newsprint?

It may be photocopied. The photocopies may be photocopied.

• Use typefaces and graphics that photocopy well.
• Don’t rely on color.

During apple season—late summer and fall

• Will it rain enough to damage the flyers?
• Capitalize on back-to-school season somehow?

Author

Business Owner

• Display her signature below main text

Eco Friendly

• Use recycled paper and mention it (subtly)

Trustworthy / has nothing to hide

• Encourage questions, both by phone and drop-in.

A member of the community (not “above” anyone)

• Display the owner’s cell phone alongside her first name?

Of course, many of the above ideas would be completely scrapped or replaced with better ones if it were a real job. But it isn’t, so don’t get caught up in the details. Remember, this is meant to be a brainstorm; write down every idea you have, regardless of its perceived viability!

Advanced Details

Audience

• Audience is always plural—prepare for misunderstanding.
• What audiences or individuals might view the document in addition to the target audience? How might they misunderstand it?
• Are there parties that should not view the document? Parties that must not view the document?
• Will the document be photographed or scanned for OCR software?

Purpose

• The purpose is always persuasion—aim to persuade and the rest will follow.
• Some texts layer purpose as follows: inform, convince, persuade. I ignore all but “persuade.” Writing a persuasive document will require both informing and convincing.

Context

• Context is infinitely vast—don’t get sucked into the abyss.
• Consider temporal, spatial, cultural, social, emotional, political, ethical, etc.
• What will the environment be like? Weather and light condition(s)? Viewing distance(s), angle(s), and height(s) relative to eye level? Will multiple people try use it at the same time?
• How many times will it be used? And for how long or until when? Will it be passed on?
• When/if the document expires, where is its final destination? Filing Cabinet? Landfill? Recycled? Digitization?

Author

• The author is an imaginary character—conveying them is a form of acting.
• Why are they writing this document? What are their motivations?
• Who do they work for?
• What are their biases?
• Is it one person? a team? a company? an organization?
• Is the author human?
• Or maybe it’s not supposed to read like it has an author, like it’s some sort of universal fact or concept that “just is,” like a famous quote with an unknown author.
• Is the perceived author a skilled writer? Should typos or poor grammar be injected?

The Fix

The problem is line 29.

This is wrong:

28
29
30

if($cached_favicons[$bookmark_url] == 'empty'){
	$favicon = '';
	$cache_update[$bookmark_url] = 'empty';

This is right:

28
29
30

if($cached_favicons[$bookmark_url] == 'empty'){
	$favicon = $default_favicon;
	$cache_update[$bookmark_url] = 'empty';

Change line 29 and you’re done!

Blogroll Links Favicons is by John Turner. For more info, read the blog post or visit the plugin on WordPress.org.

Also, I apologize for the lack of line wrapping; I could use some advice on auto-wrapping Applescript for web display. (help? )

What it does:

1. Copy images out of iPhoto to ~/Pictures/_Processed_Images
2. Rename images as “[title in iPhoto] by [artist name]“
3. Convert to JPEG
4. Resize by longest dimension
5. Convert to sRGB
6. Embed EXIF data (artist & keywords)

What you need:

1. iPhoto (tested with ’08 and ’09)
2. ExifTool by Phil Harvey
3. The following script.

The Script:

(*
(*
NAME: iPhoto Export - Process for Web
AUTHOR: Stephen Nomura
AUTHOR URI: http://stephennomura.com
SCRIPT URI: http://stephennomura.com/blog/applescript-customizable-iphoto-export
VERSION: 0.5 (2010-09-21)
SYNOPSIS: Takes any images selected in iPhoto and prepares them for uploading to the internet. This briefly entails:
 
			1- Copy image(s) out of iPhoto
			2- Rename based on iPhoto title and artist name
			3- Convert to jpeg (or other type)
			4- Resize by longest dimension
			5- Convert to sRGB (or other profile)
			6- Embed EXIF data
 
NOTE: This script depends on the 'ExifTool' by Phil Harvey. You must have it installed to run this script. It can be found at http://www.sno.phy.queensu.ca/~phil/exiftool/
*)
 
-------------------
(* SETTINGS *)
-------------------
(* The following properties can be modified as you see fit. Have fun! *)
property maxDimension : 1440
property newFileFormat : "jpeg"
-- File Format can be "jpeg", "tiff", "png", "gif", "jp2", "pict", "bmp", "qtif", "psd", "sgi", or "tga" as paramater.
property colorProfile : "sRGB Profile"
-- Color Profile can be "AdobeRGB1998", "Generic CMYK Profile", "Generic Gray Gamma 2.2 Profile", "Generic Gray Profile", "Generic Lab Profile", "Generic RGB Profile", "Generic XYZ Profile", or "sRGB Profile"
-- (note: I've only tested "sRGB Profile" but the rest should all work in theory.)
property outputDir : POSIX path of ((path to pictures folder as string) & "_Processed_Images:")
-- If you modify the output directory, don't forget the trailing colon!
 
---------------------
(* THE SCRIPT *)
---------------------
global artistName, metaKeywords, runTime
set sipsCmd to ""
set exifCmd to ""
try
	tell application "iPhoto"
		activate
		copy (my selected_images()) to these_images
		if these_images is false then error "Please select at least one image to process."
 
		set artistName to text returned of (display dialog "Enter Artist Name to embed in meta and append to file name." with title "Enter Artist Name" default answer "" buttons {"Continue…"} default button 1)
		set metaKeywords to text returned of (display dialog "Enter Keywords to embed in meta. Separate with commas." with title "Enter Keywords" default answer "" buttons {"Continue…"} default button 1)
 
		(* CONFIRMATION *)
		my confirmation()
 
		(* BUILD SHELL SCRIPT *)
		repeat with i from 1 to the count of these_images
			set this_photo to item i of these_images
 
			(* DEFINE FIELDS *)
			tell this_photo
				set the image_title to the title
				set the image_path to the image path as string
				set the new_image_path to outputDir & image_title & " by " & artistName & "." & newFileFormat
				set the image_filename to the image filename
				set the image_comment to the comment
				set the assigned_keywords to the name of keywords
			end tell
 
			(* DEFINE DIR CMD *)
			set dirCmd to "mkdir -p " & outputDir & "/; "
 
			(* DEFINE SIPS CMD *)
			set sipsCmd to sipsCmd & "sips -s format " & newFileFormat & ¬
				" -Z " & maxDimension & ¬
				" -i '" & image_path & ¬
				"' --out '" & new_image_path & "'; "
 
			(* DEFINE EXIFTOOL CMD *)
			set exifCmd to exifCmd & "exiftool -overwrite_original_in_place '-icc_profile<=/System/Library/ColorSync/Profiles/" & colorProfile & ".icc' -ImageDescription='" & image_title & "' -artist='" & artistName & "' -keywords='" & metaKeywords & "' '" & new_image_path & "'; "
 
		end repeat
 
		(* PROCESS IMAGES *)
		do shell script dirCmd & sipsCmd & exifCmd
 
	end tell
 
	(* SUCCESS! *)
	my success()
 
	(* IF ERROR… *)
on error error_message number error_number
	tell application "iPhoto"
		activate
		if the error_number is not -128 then
			display dialog error_message buttons {"OK"} default button 1
		end if
	end tell
end try
 
---------------------
(* METHODS *)
---------------------
on selected_images()
	tell application "iPhoto"
		try
			-- get selection
			set these_items to the selection
			-- check for single album selected
			if the class of item 1 of these_items is album then error "Please select individual images, not albums."
			-- return the list of selected photos
			return these_items
		on error
			return false
		end try
	end tell
end selected_images
 
on confirmation()
	tell application "iPhoto"
		display dialog "Meta data to embed...
	Artist: " & artistName & "
	Keywords: " & metaKeywords & "
 
Image data to modify...
	Max Dimension: " & maxDimension & "px
	File Format: " & newFileFormat & "
	Color Profile: " & colorProfile & "
 
New images can be found at...
" & outputDir & "
 
You will be notified with a chime and dialog when the images are ready."
	end tell
end confirmation
 
on success()
	do shell script "afplay /System/Library/Sounds/Hero.aiff"
	try
		tell application "iPhoto"
			if button returned of (display dialog "Images Ready!
 
New images can be found at...
" & outputDir & "
 
--
~Stephen Nomura (http://stephennomura.com)" with title "Images Ready!" buttons {"OK", "Show files in Finder"} default button 2) is "Show files in Finder" then
				do shell script "open " & outputDir
			end if
		end tell
	end try
end success
(*
Inspiration:
   http://hints.macworld.com/article.php?story=20070822121100394
Godsend resource:
   http://developer.apple.com/mac/library/technotes/tn2002/tn2065.html
 
TO DO:
 + Use a temp folder for processing
 + Display progress meter
 + Option: process selected files in finder
 + Option: set all settings with dialog prompt
 + Metadata keywords from iPhoto keywords
 + XMP Metadata Support
 + Move all settings to UI
 
*)

References

• Inspiration: http://hints.macworld.com/article.php?story=20070822121100394
• Godsend resource: http://developer.apple.com/mac/library/technotes/tn2002/tn2065.html

New Features:

• Admin Menu Icons – Adds ability to set admin menu icons for post types via the ‘menu_icon’ field.
• Rewrite With Front – Adds ability to set the rewrite ‘with_front’ option for both post types and taxonomies.

Aside from the actual plugin, which you can read about on Brad’s blog, I was inspired by a comment made by Rofflox on the WordPress.org support forums.

Download Custom Post Type UI Enhanced 0.7 (Newest Version)
Download Custom Post Type UI Enhanced 0.6.1

If you’d prefer I list line-by-line changes, request it in the comments; I really wouldn’t mind but I’m not going to spend the time unless people want it.